Neighborhood Conditions and Recurrent Emergency Department Utilization by Children in the United States

Introduction: Recurrent emergency department (ED) utilization in the pediatric population is associated with multiple individual-level factors, including minority race and ethnicity and lower household income. How neighborhood conditions experienced by families, particularly social and physical environmental attributes that are potentially amenable to intervention, influence child ED utilization is less well understood. Objective: Evaluate the associations of neighborhood cohesion, safety, amenities (sidewalks, parks, recreation centers, libraries), and detractors (litter, rundown housing, vandalism) with child recurrent ED utilization and their contribution to utilization differences by race and ethnicity and income level. Methods: Cross-sectional study …